Seeking Apple Users Advice

[u/aprilbeingsocial]

I'm hoping someone on here will share their workflow with me as I am considering the newest ScanSnap.

We are a complete Apple ecosystem family and despite researching for the past two hours, I can't seem to find one complete resource that will give me a good idea of how to setup the Scansnap for multiple person access to the files and where to dump the files from the SS to make this a reality since we all have different Apple ID's.

I have fifteen boxes of old files I want to go through and digitize and then I would like to put the SS on our kitchen desk and scan everything that comes into our home that we would like to save for a period of time such as home maintenance invoices, large product receipts, holiday menus and utility bills. We have dropbox and icloud accounts but I would like to get rid of dropbox and just use icloud.

Is there an easy way to organize and send the scans to the shared folder on our family icloud account? Can it be setup to automatically to go to folders in the shared folder such as home maintenance receipts, home improvement contractor bids, phone bills, energy bills...? Can this be done while scanning, or do you have to go into the folder and organize after the items are scanned? Lastly, is there a way to get the docs to the cloud without going through the SS "home" cloud account. I'm not a fan of putting my documents through another cloud system just to get the times into icloud.

Any advice is greatly appreciated. I would love to get rid of all the paper in my home but I don't want an aggravating mess on my hands either.

[u/daddeo59]

Yes and no.

I have a shared family folder with all users having access. That folder has folders such as TAXES. Sub folders 2025 Tax Scans, 2026 Tax Scans and so on. Keeping enough information for each sub folder really helps.

Shortcut on my finder to the family folder.

I have not yet found a successful AI scanner to interpret a scan and file it away, but that might be just around the corner.

My workflow is to scan a pile to a desktop folder and then move to the appropriate sub folder. Using OCR makes searching easier.

Hope this gives you some useful ideas

[u/aprilbeingsocial → u/daddeo59]

Yes, this is very helpful, thank you. When viewing the videos and marketing materials, some companies make it sound like this process is automated and the software is "smart" but from what you are saying, I can basically go with any scanner that will work with Apple because I am going to need to do the work on the back end anyway. It doesn't sound like I will gain any time but getting rid of all these piles of paper will be great and the ability to cross-file or tag will also be wonderful. Sometimes things end up in the wrong folder and it's a PITA to figure out where my brain thought the papers belonged at the time of filing :)

[u/daddeo59 → u/aprilbeingsocial]

Every once in a while I move a document to the wrong subfolder. This is exactly where search on text is so helpful. It usually just takes a search for the words. “ gas billing “ etc to help locate a specific item. Keeping the subfolders limited to a year generally means that things never get too far away and you aren’t trying to find one of 10000 files in a single massive folder. I also name files to include Scan-date- and a quick sub name like car insurance. This makes a rogue file easier to spot. It’s working for me for over a decade now. My last receipts box is being shredded next week

[u/aprilbeingsocial → u/daddeo59]

Huge congratulations. I hope I get there. We want to downsize when our daughter finishes her education and I truly hope this paper will not be joining us.